I've already purchased the pattern on Ravelry, and now I am left with the problem of yarn and color choice. My initial thought was chartreuse, because I am OBSESSED with chartreuse cardigans... I have one in wool, one in silk, and one in cashmere--plus a UFO sewn one in doubleknit--and I probably wear them more than any other sweaters I own, as evidenced in these three garment photos from my pregnant days:

But perhaps I need to branch out a bit, color-wise. I'm leaning towards periwinkle or blue, though I do have a soft spot for bright pink--like chartreuse, it seems to go with everything in my wardrobe! Check it out--I'm wearing pink AND chartreuse in both of these photos from 2007 (the one directly below is by Márta Fodor):

The two non-chartreuse cardigans I wear most often are this old thrifted red wrap cardi shown here in 2006 (when I still took photos in my bathroom with the mirror):

Speaking of ancient bathroom photos--I didn't even crop my laundry bag out of this one! Cashmere chartreuse cardi I still wear all the time, shown with my me-made blue wool tweed skirt:

And here's my trusty thrifted periwinkle cashmere cabled cardigan, which looks way better in real life now (and fits much better now that I'm not pregnant):

OK, enough already. I'm also self-debating over yarns and fibers. I don't know if I want to use a solid color yarn (to better show off the fancy lace and ribbing and eyelets and suchlike) or a subtly variegated semi-solid yarn... most of the yarns I was ogling were semi-solids but really, I think this might do best in a solid.

Anyway, this is the fun part, right? Now I get to go to my local yarn shops and feel up the squishy wooly wares and dither back and forth and... for as long as the toddler will tolerate, anyway.

You might have noticed I'm not even CONSIDERING a neutral color, because I find that I almost never wear the few neutral cardigans I own. That's just me, though--if your favorite sweater is gray or black or brown, I salute you and your yarny neutrality!

P.S. In the meantime, I'm making socks (Ravelry project details here)! From yarn I dyed myself (ages ago), in a lovely super-bright ombre blue. In the Waving Lace pattern by Evelyn A. Clark from Favorite Socks, which looks super-complex but is really easy to follow/memorize:

P.P.S. Guys, I was ALMOST up to 200 followers... I was at 199... and then I suddenly dropped back to 198! Maybe I offended a die-hard sewist with all this knitting talk? (not that I care!)

15 comments:

what is that fascinating art of you and the mister? is it a bowling ball? a big polka dot? is it the artistic interpretation of pregnancy as polka dot overload? wait that's it, isn't it! and you've got a CARDI on!!

Considering your choice of spring/summer wardrobe, I'd go with the periwinkle. Obviously you're also attracted to that color now :-). Basically choose whichever color will go best with the maximum amount of clothes you've made recently. And I don't think a semi-solid would obscure the pattern, as long as it doesn't lapse into the really varigated. Imho it'd also look more 'handmade', which is a plus when you spend that long making something :-).Have you tried tossing your wobbly cotton sweater into not just the machine but the dryer? That can fix most stretchy problems, temporarily..

Well I was totally wrong on the cardigan pattern! That one is beautiful though, esp. the back. I ,too, think a subtle variegated yarn would be nice. I guess the best way to know would be to do swatches, but that would involve buying more yarn... :)

Well, if you've done anything, you're making me consider knitting. That lace back is beautiful, and it's next to impossible for me to find that kind of sweater in RTW that would fit even close to properly. How long do you think it takes to go from a dead beginner knitter to one who can make (I'm not even talking about time--just skill) something like that?

I love the chartreuse too! And of course you have several, but none of them are LACEY, which means it is totally justifiable :) I do love the idea of the bright pink too - and I think it would look really gorgeous in that lacework.

I'm a big color fan (and love that you are too). I wear my magenta hoodie with so many things, followed by my peacock blue cardigan... (and I've been dreaming of a malabrigo lettuce garment forever, must knit more stash first).

I don't have much help for color, but do have fiber advice. In your previous post you mentioned looking at merino and superwash yarns. Superwash doesn't have the elasticity of regular wool and tends to stretch out. Merino is lovely but is also less springy with less return, and pills like a mother especially when loosely spun. In a small cardigan with that much pattern the stretch shouldn't be such an issue, but I wanted to throw in a warning. If you didn't have a toddler I'd recommend non-superwash, but since you do… ;)